japan-subway

Hi Stan:

I have 2 train stories which took place in the late 1970s or early 1980s on the Mito Line. I was probably commuting to work from Iwama to Mito or Hitachi.

The first was was a fight between 2 men. One was sitting down and the other was standing up. The man who was standing beat the sitting man repeatedly with his fists. The sitting man just tried to cover up the best he could but did not counter attack. Then the aggressive, standing man hit the metal pole by accident and probably broke his hand. He was in severe pain and could not punch any more. The sitting man stood up, became the aggressor, and returned the one sided beating. The man with the injured hand could do nothing in defense. ( I did not know what they were fighting about and did not get involved.)

The second incident was when a mentally deranged man was physically and verbally abusive towards some high school girls. There were others on board and so I waited for some Japanese person to take action. When it was apparent that no one was going to help, I went up the the guy and yelled “osaete!”
The crazy guy then settled down and walked away to a different train car. No one said anything to me on the train but the girls said “arigatoo gozaimashita” when I got off at my stop.

Rob Okun